Monday, May 8, 2023

BAGHDAD TO ERBIL DAY 146 & 147 7-4-23 352km.


The Frenchies and I left Baghdad at 5 am for Erbil to escape the traffic choas. Once out of the city I continued on my own to Samarra, south of Tikrit to see The Great Mosque of Samarra. Apparently it is closed for renov ation, unbeknownst to me and drove through the gate and heard someone yelling which I ignored and parked my bike and got a photo when the irritated guy apppeared and gestured and barked at me to leave, hey the gate was open. 


They don't  allow you to pump fuel into bike tanks, you have to have a container and then empty that into your tank, but I was fortunate enough to persuade the one guy to do it as I didn't  have a container and it is only 33 US cents a litre. 
Arrived in Erbil, Kurdistan at 11am and went to surprise a friend of my sons who lives here and stayed with us in Montana while he was studying at the University of Bozeman.
He was shocked to see me and he took me to a fancy lunch with some of his colleagues ànd caught up on some old times. So nice to see how these young guys succeed in life, his story on getting to the US is remarkable and his determination. He then returned years later to get an MBA in two years and now he is running GEG Oil here, what an inspiring story he has.

After lunch went to the hotel and then to the Citadel which is the centre of town and walked around with Konsti and then walked back to the hotel. Shared a room with the Kiwi again, only $20 each.





Tuesday 8th May.   ERBIL    DAY  147

We all went to the Citadel and walked around inside and around the market and then Richard and I got a cab back to the hotel. Loafed around and worked on my bike.

Tomorrow I will visit Mosul and cross into Turkey and  do some nice dirt road riding.

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LAST RACE DAY 8th JUNE 2024

The race was postponed three times and finally got going at 1pm, only two laps, but the track is 37.7 miles long.